Germanization

James C. Russell, The Germanization of Early Medieval Christianity: A Sociohistorical Approach to Religious Transformation. NY: Oxford Univ. Pr., 1994. ISBN 0-19-510466-8. $35.00.

Those who study the origins of Germanic myth and religion often place the old beliefs in a sort of polar opposition to Christianity. The two creeds are not only seen as utterly distinct, but nothing discredits a historical source as thoroughly as the claim that it has been “tainted” by Christian influence. James C. Russell blurs this picture by raising an issue that many of us had not previously considered: to what extent did the influence run in the opposite direction, such that Christianity became permanently “tainted,” as it were, by the influence of Germanic heathenism?

The first four chapters of Russell’s book, based on his doctoral dissertation in historical theology, develops a general model of religious interaction between folk-religious societies and universalist religions. This section contains fascinating glimpses into the process of “Christianizing” the Germanic peoples. The earliest Christian missionaries to these realms encountered such fierce cultural hostility that they promptly began modifying the content of their message to make it seem less alien to the Germanic worldview. This “Germanization” of Christianity, says Russell,

“was not the result of organized Germanic resistance to Christianity, or of an attempt by the Germanic peoples to transform Christianity into an acceptable form. Rather, it was primarily a consequence of the deliberate inculturation of Germanic religiocultural attitudes within Christianity by Christian missionaries. This process of accommodation resulted in the essential transformation of Christianity from a universal salvation religion to a Germanic, and eventually European, folk religion” (p.39).

It was this “transformed” Christianity that was accepted by a sufficient number of Celtic and Germanic leaders to permit its eventual domination of northern Europe.

In his final three chapters, Russell gives a detailed account of what he calls the Germanic transformation of Christianity. He provides a general account of pre-Christian Germanic religiosity and social structure, drawing on the admittedly limited documentary sources and the tripartite structural matrix advanced by Georges Dumézil. Russell then examines in some detail the Christianization process from the initial entry of Germanic tribes into the Roman empire until the death of Boniface in 754 C.E. Throughout this process, he demonstrates the profound modification of Christian theology and ideology to accommodate the preexisting views and sentiments of Germanic heathenism. At the end of this period, Russell concludes that the Germanic peoples had become predominantly “Christian” in terms of self-identification – “but it would be necessary to specify that the form of Christianity with which they became affiliated was a Germanized one” (p. 214).

This book is highly recommended for its insights into the process by which Germanic heathen beliefs were not extinguished by, but rather were incorporated into, early European Christianity.